Intellectual property law is good. Excess in intellectual property law is not. This blog is about excess in Canadian and international copyright law, trademarks law and patent law. I practice IP law with Macera & Jarzyna, LLP in Ottawa, Canada. I've also been in government and academe. My views are purely personal and don't necessarily reflect those of my firm or any of its clients. Nothing on this blog should be taken as legal advice.

Send an email to the Chair of the Copyright Board of Canada re: Tariff 8

Send an
email to newly-appointed Copyright Board chair Justice Robert A. Blair, urging
him to facilitate the prosperity of Canadian cultural businesses rather than
impede it by recognizing the value of the Canadian music industry for all
Canadians.

To Justice Robert A. Blair, Chair of the Copyright Board of Canada

…

Here’s the text of the letter that Music Canada urges
people to send to Justice Blair, with a convenient online “tool” to facilitate the
transmission:

Dear Justice Robert A. Blair,

Congratulations on your recent appointment as the
chair of the Copyright Board of Canada.
Under the previous leadership of the Copyright Board one year ago the
Tariff 8 decision to provide creators with rates 90% lower than those they had
negotiated commercially.

This decision discards years of agreements freely
negotiated between digital music service providers and the music industry and
sends a message to the world that it does not value music as a profession. This is inconsistent with Canadian values.

These rates were unprecedented globally – they are one
of the world’s worst royalty rates for non-interactive and semi-interactive
music streaming.

One year later Tariff 8 decision remains a serious
setback for the music community in Canada, for artists and the music companies
who invest in their careers. This
decision has created a regulatory precedent that ignores the reality of the
marketplace and will continue to harm the business climate in this country and create
a market uncertainty.

Today Canadian recorded music digital revenues and
physical revenues combined only represent half of revenues fifteen years
ago. I urge you in your new position to
make decisions that recognize the value of the Canadian music industry for all
Canadians, and to create tariffs that pay creators fairly. Canadian creators
should not be paid less than their contemporaries around the world.

As you begin your mandate please consider how the
Copyright Board can facilitate the prosperity of Canadian cultural businesses
rather than impede it.

The Copyright Board is an independent quasi-judicial
tribunal. Parties make their case. If they don’t like the result, they can seek
judicial review. It is NEVER acceptable to
“lobby” such a tribunal in any way, and especially reprehensible to write lobbying letters to its Chair. This is an insult to the
Board and its distinguished new Chair, Justice Robert A. Blair.

Music Canada, despite its mis-descriptive name, actually
mainly represents the interests of the big three non-Canadian multinational record
companies: